Rupert Thorne (Gotham Knight)
Rupert Thorne '''(1954-2016) as the CEO of Thorne Industries, it was once Wayne Enterprises before Thorne took it over and emerged the corporation into his own. Thorne was the father of the late Eric Thorne. He was also the ex-best-friend-turned-enemy of Victor Marlowe. He was then killed by Owl-Man for his failure. Biography Early Life Rupert Thorne was born in Gotham City to a caring mother and an ambitious but cruel father. When he was young, Thorne's father, Earnest, ran for the city council of Old Gotham, believing it would make him and his family rich. Rupert, at the age of twelve, helped his father put signs together to promote his campaign. Thorne's father allowed him to take a drink of whiskey, but when Thorne choked he was mocked by his father. Despite the work that their family put in, the campaign was a complete failure, with Earnest Thorne losing out to his rival and coming out feeling both angry and humiliated as well as looking for someone to take out this anger upon. Rupert soon became ridiculed by his neighbour Arnold Walker, who began kicking down the signs for Thorne's campaign before hitting Thorne in the jaw for fighting back and attempting to defend his father's work. The upset Thorne returned to his home where his mother cared for his cut lip and gave him food to make him feel better .When his father found out about this assault, he took the young Rupert to confront Walker in person. Thorne watched closely as his father cornered and confronted the over confident Walker until he became angry. Earnest Thorne assaulted Walker and managed to beat him to the ground by hitting him repeatedly with a baseball bat. Thorne was then ordered by his father to kick the defenseless Walker repeatedly, telling him that he had to prove that he was a man and willing to fight back. Thorne did as he was instructed and assaulted Walker repeatedly, as his father ordered him to continue. Having lost his campaign, Earnest Thorne's drinking habit got more out of hand as the pressure of owing money to local mobsters, including Vincent Falcone, got to him, and he began beating his wife, blaming her for everything that was wrong with his life. During these beatings he would order Rupert to sit and stare at a blank wall and listen to his own mother scream in fear and pain as she was beaten repeatedly. The young Rupert remained fearful of his father, but hearing his mother's pain caused him to despise his father. During one of these beatings, Rupert decided to put an end to his beloved mother's suffering. He grabbed a nearby hammer and repeatedly hit his father over the head with it, killing him and crushing his skull with hit after hit. His mother comforted Thorne and promised to protect him, deciding to then cut up the body. They began dumping it in the river every night for the next week, knowing that most people who knew them would blame Vincent Falcone for his disappearance. As a gift, Thorne was given his father's cufflinks, which he kept as a reminder to never be a failure like his father. After Rupert murdered his father, his mother sent him to live on a farm with relatives. Thorne later moved to Asia where he would spend most of his time abroad, something reflected in his behavior and clothing. Thorne then returned to Gotham years later, having become incredibly wealthy due to starting a spice business in Japan, and started doing business with Wayne Enterprises. Thorne also fathered a son named Eric Thorne and had a wife who died later from unknown reasons. The Secret Project Thorne attempted to track down a crystal in order to revive Project Avalon, a project that Thomas Wayne and Victor Marlowe were working on before Thomas backed out of the project, not wanting to have anything to do with it. Thorne was also the new CEO of Wayne Enterprises, which he renamed as Thorne Industries. Thorne gave Bruce Wayne a job in the IT Department where he got to work with Katrina Armstrong. In the meantime, he was also at war with Carmine Falcone for control over Gotham City. Trying to revive Project Avalon brought Thorne into conflict with Victor Marlowe, who started killing his employees as Prometheus. When Thorne attempted to revive Project Avalon after kidnapping Marlowe, Alfred Pennyworth arrived and managed to make Thorne vanish by throwing the crystal at him. Thorne also became vengeful when Victor's son John murdered his son Eric. Working With Owl-Man Thorne returned to Gotham years later and became a small-time drug kingpin who manufactured an illegal drug akin to steroids derived from Stardust while maneuvering a huge criminal organization. Thorne and Owl-Man hired Karl Iscove to kill Owen Post - the son of master hacktivist and Pandora's leader Justin Tanner - while dressed as Batman in order to influence Tanner and make him start a war with Batman. Then, he killed Iskov to tie up loose ends and doctored a photo of Bruce as Batman after being told of it by Owl-Man, who has been studying Bruce and keeping an eye on him over the year. Later in the year, Thorne leaked the photo to the FBI of Bruce Wayne as the Batman, thus arousing controversy and suspicion towards him and limiting Bruce's work as the vigilante. Thorne began to work in Justin Tanner's cabal to overthrow Carmine Falcone's disappointment of a son Mario to take Falcone Imports. After Tanner was killed by Owl-Man when Owl-Man no longer needed him, Thorne continued on with his plans and used the stolen money from Bruce to buy city officials as well as the police department members to be under his payroll. Thorne even formed an alliance with Draco Kosov, the Ukrainian leader of the Whisper Gang who has a grudge against Adrian Chase for murdering his lover Konsantine Kovar. Bruce attempted to get Draco on his side only for Draco to betray Bruce for Thorne. Thorne started torturing Bruce until Draco reminded to him that "every drop of blood he draws from a chained-up man is a sign of weakness, his weakness", which drove him to challenge him in a duel against Jackson Chappell setting the rule that if Chappell would win, Bruce would have left the city forever, and vice versa if Bruce would have be the winner. Thus, they went on to fight, during which Bruce beat Chappell. Thorne then used a knife to pierce the side of Bruce's belly and calls him a loser. This prompts Draco and corrupt Detective Frank MacDonald to turn against Thorne feeling that he lacks honor and principles. This would be proven to be true when Thorne turns the Whisper Gang against Draco by revealing that he and Kovar were lovers. After the fight, Thorne then ordered his men to brought out the beaten Bruce from his cell and has him arrested by revoking his parole and anticipating his trial at the following week. Later, when Jason Todd testified during the trial, Thorne invaded the court taking his little brother with him and forcing him to prosecute Bruce The crime lord's plan, however, didn't go as expected since Christopher Chance/Human Target was impersonating Jude Faden, John Marlowe being revived from the dead and breaking into the courtroom claiming to be Batman, and Det. McDonald confessing to having gathered evidence against Bruce without a warrant. Thorne then ordered for Marlowe and McDonald to be killed as well as Judge Faden for his incompetence. However, Owl-Man arrives to kill Thorne for his failure. Personality Rupert Thorne has a very shallow and callous, as well as violent, and even psychopathic personality. He exhibits many, if not all, classic psychopathic traits: a complete lack of conscience, a lack of remorse and empathy, a shallow affect, and even callousness as he showed no qualms for being rude to his employees in the company except for those with a high status such as Bruce Wayne. Despite this, he expressed sadness and then rage when John Marlowe killed his son Eric, whom he loved dearly. He even loved his mother which is why he killed his father to protect her. Thorne is an incredible liar and manipulator and was able to fool Tanner and his criminal cabal for months. Cruel and often silent, Thorne hid behind the mask of a hothead crime lord well so his allies and enemies never suspected him, only quietly moving machinations to suit his advantage and striking out when was necessary. Despite his patience and intelligence, Thorne is still very impulsive. Thorne is a classic thug who lacks honor. He pointlessly hurt Bruce while chained up, proving to his men what a coward he is, when Draco told him that every drop of blood he draws from a chained-up man is a sign of weakness, Thorne weakness. Thorne cheated during in a fight and justified this as life not being fair. Thorne even took over Celia Kazanthakakis's Network after she was imprisoned by the DEO and convinced the Whisper Gang to turn against his associate Draco to takeover, knowing very well that the Ukrainian mob would kill Draco if he was a homosexual. Thorne is also unstable due to his childhood abuse and on to his grudge towards John Marlowe for killing his son during his five years away from Gotham. He Skills '''High-level intellect/Master tactician/Leader * Master deceiver/Manipulator * Expert interrogator/Torturer * Network: As the leader of a huge criminal organization, Thorne has established many connections who provides him aid for various natures, having on his payroll numerous politicians, judges, and policemen both in the city and in the country, making him one of, if not the most dangerous crime lord anyone has ever faced. * Business Acumen ''' Weaknesses * '''Mental instability Equipment * Bulletproof vest * Guns/Firearms Background * In the DC comics, Rupert Thorne was a corrupt city councilor who used Hamilton Hill as a puppet, and used him to remove James Gordon and replace him with Pete Pauling. He also learned that Hugo Strange had discovered Batman's identity, and believed that he had accidentally killed him while torturing Strange for the information. In reality, Strange faked his death and used chemicals to make Thorne believe that Batman was trying to kill him. After he learned of Batman's identity, Thorne hired Deadshot to kill Bruce Wayne (without telling him that Wayne was Batman). Thorne was eventually arrested when he killed Pauling in a delirium induced by Strange. * He is the first businessman to ever run a mob business. * He is similar to Salvatore Valestra where he has Buzz Bronski and Chuckie Sol in his pocket. * He is similar to his version in ''Batman: The Animated Series ''where he used his company as a front of his criminal activities. Category:Evil Characters Category:Deceased Category:Presumed Deceased Category:Male Category:Mobsters Category:Businessmen Category:Gotham Knight (T.V Series) Category:Thugs